New safety precautions reduce crashes at accident-prone Penn intersection

By Anna Hess 04/08/15 1:53am

Six accidents have occurred on the busy intersection of 38th Street and Spruce Street since the beginning of 2015. The year before, the accident-prone intersection was home to 19 crashes. 

These numbers actually indicate a decrease in incidents, especially more serious crashes, according to the Division of Public Safety. DPS worked with Facilities and Residential Services, local engineers and the Philadelphia Department of Transportation to boost safety measures this past summer, since the intersection is considered a highway that runs through Penn’s campus.

The measures include installing a left hand turn signal going southbound on 38th Street and bump-outs that shorten the distance for pedestrians to cross the intersection. They also added tall cones to the intersection in front of Wawa, which serve to keep illegally parked cars out of the bike lane on Spruce Street. Penn Police also help to enforce traffic throughout all of their patrol area.

Most of the intersection's accidents were vehicle-to-vehicle crashes, but also included a few crashes between pedestrians and vehicles or bikes.

“That’s a very busy intersection, you have bikes, pedestrians and vehicles,” Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. “Everyone’s got to play by the rules, including pedestrians and bicycles.”

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